All week long here on Melting Pot we’ve been taking a look at the year in music for 2013. Today’s post focuses on the best new releases I heard in 2013. More than any other year in recent memory I’ve felt distinctly overwhelmed by how much music is out there in the world. It’s getting to the point where I almost feel like there is too much music out there. My favorite records are often out of step with mainstream and underground lists, but this year in particular I felt a bit more disconnected. It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard records that other people felt were the “best,” I just wasn’t feeling them. The following are the records that I most definitely felt in 2013.
***Honorable Mentions: Boogaloo Assassins – Old Love Dies Hard (Sicario), Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators – Tortured Soul (Timmion), Dom La Nena – Ela (Six Degrees), Jaimeo Brown – Transcendence (Motema), Toro Y Moi – Anything In Return (Carpark)
5. Myron & E with the Soul Investigators – Broadway – Stones Throw
Myron & E with the Soul Investigators – Turn Back
2013 was the year of Retro Soul, with seemingly every Soul act of worth releasing an album. The most anticipated for me was this album from Myron & E with backing from the Soul Investigators. I’ve spent the better part of the last three years playing 45s from the group, almost always mentioning that the full-length was coming soon. This year that became a reality and the boys did not disappoint, building off of their singles and including a variety of new songs showcasing their distinct vocal harmonies and top-shelf grooves from the Soul Investigators (who also did exceptional work with long-time collaborator Nicole Willis). Hopefully we won’t have to wait quite as long for the follow-up.
4. Valerie June – Pushin’ Against A Stone – Concord
Valerie June has been making music for quite some time, initially gaining some notice in the group Bella Sun and her own solo work. 2013 was the year she fully got the recognition she deserved via Pushin’ Against A Stone. As a native southerner with roots in West Tennessee there were a lot of aspects of June’s album that I felt a connection to. Few recent artists have as deftly moved from genre to genre in the space of a single album and made it all sound as fluid, natural and authentic as Valerie June. Production work from Dan Auerbach certainly helped, but as was clear from the many live performances June graced us with over the year, the woman doesn’t need anyone’s help. All she needed was for people to pay attention and listen.
3. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away – Bad Seed LTD
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Jubilee Street
After almost 20 years as a fan, it’s quite possible that I’m genetically predisposed to love virtually everything that Nick Cave puts out. In my book the man hasn’t made a “bad” album despite being one of the more prolific artists in the last several decades. Push The Sky Away doesn’t have quite the same amount of menace as his recent work with Grinderman, or the latent grooves of the last Bad Seeds album Dig Lazurus Dig!, but what it does have in abundance is deep soulfulness musically. Lyrically, much has been written about how Cave looked for inspiration online, jotting down ideas from Wikipedia entries and google searches. All told it’s an exceptional listen. Perhaps more so than any of the other records on this list, Push The Sky Away is an album that deserves to be heard from start to finish and back again.
1. Quadron – Avalanche – Vested In Culture/Epic & Rhye – Woman – Innovative Leisure/Polydor
Quadron – Neverland
Rhye – Open
I’m not sure if this is a cop-out or not, but I went back and forth between these two albums and eventually just gave up trying to chose one and decided they’d share the top spot. A major reason why they share this position is because of the sterling production work from Robin Hannibal. In a year that was marked by more of the theft side of “love and theft,” Hannibal was able to pay respect to his inspirations without sounding as if he had just wholesale ripped them off (yes, I’m talking about you Robin Thicke and Pharrell!). As with his previous work, you can hear elements of artists he’s clearly been influenced by, on Quadron’s album Rod Temperton era MJ and on Rhye’s debut, most prominently, the vibe and sound of Sade, but they stay just that, influences. Hannibal has produced an instantly recognizable, highly referential, sound, but it also a singular sound, special and distinctive in its own regard. Having both of these releases in the same year provides a fair amount of symmetry, but also interesting juxtapositions. Both vocalists Hannibal is paired with, Coco O. in Quadron and Mike Milosh in Rhye, have a bit of ambiguity in their voices. For some Milosh’s voice has a feminine quality to it, not unlike Little Jimmy Scott, that seemed to trick quite a few listeners. While a lot has been said about Coco O’s marvelous voice, it doesn’t seem that many people pick up on just how much she sounds like Little Michael Jackson. Where both vocalists excel is in conveying extraordinary tenderness in their performances. While their songwriting has its merits, it almost doesn’t matter what they are singing, so much is communicated simply in the way they sing. In a world filled with distraction, each song on these albums commands your attention and creates a space you don’t easily want to relinquish. For all these reasons, I feel they are most deserving of sharing the top spot on my list this year.